Every province on mainwand China (incwuding de iswand province of Hainan) has a Communist Party of China provinciaw committee (Chinese: 省委; pinyin: shěngwěi), headed by a secretary (Chinese: 书记; pinyin: shūjì). The Committee Secretary is effectivewy in charge of de province, rader dan de governor (Chinese: 书记; pinyin: shūjì) of de provinciaw government.[4]

The government of each standard province (Chinese: 省; pinyin: shěng) is nominawwy wed by a provinciaw committee, headed by a secretary. The committee secretary is first-in-charge of de province; second-in-command is de governor of de provinciaw government.

The Peopwe's Repubwic of China (PRC) cwaims de iswand of Taiwan and its surrounding iswets, incwuding Penghu, as "Taiwan Province", dough Taiwan has not been under controw of a government dat ruwed from mainwand China since 1949, when de Repubwic of China wost de mainwand to de Communist Party of China, which estabwished de PRC. (Kinmen and de Matsu Iswands are cwaimed by de PRC as part of its Fujian Province. The Pratas Iswands and Taiping Iswand are cwaimed by de PRC as part of Guangdong and Hainan provinces respectivewy.) The territory is controwwed by de Repubwic of China (ROC, commonwy cawwed "Taiwan").

A municipawity (simpwified Chinese: 直辖市; traditionaw Chinese: 直轄市; pinyin: zhíxiáshì; wit.: 'direct-administrated city') or municipawity directwy under de administration of de centraw government is a higher wevew of city which is directwy under de Chinese government, wif status eqwaw to dat of de provinces. In practice, deir powiticaw status is higher dan dat of common provinces.

An autonomous region (simpwified Chinese: 自治区; traditionaw Chinese: 自治區; pinyin: zìzhìqū) is a minority subject which has a higher popuwation of a particuwar minority ednic group awong wif its own wocaw government, but an autonomous region deoreticawwy has more wegiswative rights dan in actuaw practice. The governor of each autonomous region is usuawwy appointed from de respective minority ednic group.

A speciaw administrative region (SAR) (simpwified Chinese: 特别行政区; traditionaw Chinese: 特別行政區; pinyin: tèbié xíngzhèngqū) is a highwy autonomous and sewf-governing sub nationaw subject of de Peopwe's Repubwic of China dat is directwy under de Centraw Peopwe's Government. Each SAR has a chief executive as head of de region and head of government. The region's government is not fuwwy independent, as foreign powicy and miwitary defence are de responsibiwity of de centraw government, according to de basic waws.

By de time unity was finawwy reestabwished by de Sui dynasty, de provinces had been divided and redivided so many times by different governments dat dey were awmost de same size as commanderies, rendering de two-tier system superfwuous. As such, de Sui merged de two togeder. In Engwish, dis merged wevew is transwated as "prefectures". In Chinese, de name changed between zhou and jun severaw times before being finawwy settwed on zhou. Based on de apocryphaw Nine Province system, de Sui restored nine zhou.[9]

Emperor Taizong (r. 626–649) set up 10 "circuits" (道; dào) in 627 as inspection areas for imperiaw commissioners monitoring de operation of prefectures, rader dan a new primary wevew of administration, uh-hah-hah-hah. In 639, dere were 10 circuits, 43 commanderies (都督府; dūdū fǔ), and 358 prefectures (州 and water 府; fǔ).[10] In 733, Emperor Xuanzong expanded de number of circuits to 15 by estabwishing separate circuits for de areas around Chang'an and Luoyang, and by spwitting de warge Shannan and Jiangnan circuits into 2 and 3 new circuits respectivewy. He awso estabwished a system of permanent inspecting commissioners, dough widout executive powers.[11]

The Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) kept de province system set up by de Yuan Dynasty, however, it divided de originaw 10 provinces into 16 provinces, water 2 capitaw metropowitan areas and 13 provinces (兩京十三省) widin China proper and 5 additionaw miwitary ruwed regions.

By de watter hawf of de Qing Dynasty (1644–1912), dere were 18 provinces, aww of dem in China proper (內地十八省).
Jiangsu and Anhui were originawwy one province cawwed Jiangnan, wif its capitaw at Nanjing. There was no discrete time period when de two hawves of Jiangnan were spwit, but rader, dis was a graduaw process.

Each province had a xunfu (巡撫; xúnfǔ; transwated as "governor"), a powiticaw overseer on behawf of de emperor, and a tidu (提督; tídū; transwated as "captain generaw"), a miwitary governor. In addition, dere was a zongdu (總督; zǒngdū), a generaw miwitary inspector or governor generaw, for every two to dree provinces.

The Repubwic of China, estabwished in 1912, set up four more provinces in Inner Mongowia and two provinces in historic Tibet, bringing de totaw to 28. In 1931, Ma Zhongying estabwished Hexi in de nordern parts of Gansu but de ROC never acknowwedged de province. However, China wost four provinces wif de estabwishment of de Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in Manchuria. After de defeat of Japan in Worwd War II in 1945, China re-incorporated Manchuria as 10 provinces, and assumed controw of Taiwan as a province. As a resuwt, de Repubwic of China in 1946 had 35 provinces. Awdough de Repubwic of China now onwy controws one province (Taiwan), and some iswands of a second province (Fujian), it continues to formawwy cwaim aww 35 provinces (incwuding dose dat no wonger form part of de area of de Peopwe's Repubwic of China).

In contrast, de Repubwic of China awso had a number of provinces under its controw such as Taiwan and Fujian, which de ROC currentwy administers, dough de ROC abowished de Xinjiang Provinciaw Office in 1992. In 1998, after streamwining of de two provinces, some of its powers from de Taiwan and Fujian Provinciaw Governments were graduawwy transferred to county governments. This fractured furder between 2018 and 2019 when de ROC centraw government de facto abowished de provinciaw governments wif most of de remaining powers given to de Executive Yuan.

During de 20f century, China cwaimed dat numerous neighbouring countries and regions in Asia were "wost territories" of China.[12][13] Many of dese "wost territories" were under de ruwe of Imperiaw Chinese dynasties or were tributary states.[12]Sun Yat-sen cwaimed dat dese territories were wost due to uneqwaw treaties, forcefuw occupation and annexation, and foreign interference. Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong, among oders, were supportive of dese cwaims.[14] China pubwished a series of maps during dis time known as a "Map of Nationaw Shame" (simpwified Chinese: 国耻地图; traditionaw Chinese: 國恥地圖; pinyin: Guóchǐ dìtú) which showcased some of de "wost territories" dat had winks to various Imperiaw Chinese dynasties.